Mobile Marketing Association releases latest version of its U.S. Consumer Best Practices Guidelines for Cross-Carrier Mobile Content Services

by: admin Wednesday, July 9th, 2008

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) today released version 3.3 of its U.S. Consumer Best Practices (CBP) Guidelines for Cross-Carrier Mobile Content Services. Updated twice annually, the guidelines have become the baseline set of rules for cross-carrier mobile content services that include, but aren’t limited to, text messaging, multi-media messaging, shortcode programs, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and mobile web.

From the Press Release:

Modifications to the July 9, 2008 Guidelines include the following key areas: use of wireless carrier SMTP gateways for commercial traffic; handset delivery; clarifications around promotional content and marketing to children; and, expansion of and clarification of guidelines for Free To End User (FTEU), standard and premium rate messaging, mobile web and interactive voice response (IVR).

“The MMA’s Consumer Best Practices Guidelines are the rules for our mobile marketing industry in the United States ,” said Laura Marriott, president of the MMA. “The guidelines provide carriers, technology companies, brands, media companies and consumer advocates with the baseline set of rules to ensure a consistent and protected experience for the consumer. The guidelines have also become the rules which the industry monitors and ensure compliance against today.”

The guidelines are produced by the MMA’s CBP Committee, whose mission is to develop guidelines which provide measures of acceptable and unacceptable practices for all players in the United States ecosystem and are effective immediately.

The new guidelines also reflect contributions from CBP sub-committees, including IVR, Marketing to Children, Participation TV and Mobile Web. The sub-committees were formed to help facilitate the rapid development of the guidelines to ensure the MMA stays at the forefront of industry development and self-regulation.

You can download the full guidelines here.

The MMA Consumer Best Practices Guidelines Committee is comprised of the following member companies: Alltel Wireless, AT&T Mobility, Bango, Buongiorno, Cellfish Media LLC, Chapell & Associates, denuo Group (a Publicis Company), Jamster, Lavalife Mobile, Limbo Mobile, mBlox, Inc., MTV Networks, MX Telecom, Neustar, Inc., Nokia Corporation, OpenMarket, Qmobile Inc., SinglePoint, Single Touch Interactive, Inc., Sprint-Nextel, Sybase 365, Telescope, Inc., The Walt Disney Company, T-Mobile USA, Twistbox, Inc., VeriSign, Inc., and Verizon Wireless.